What is the Zurich outdoor escape game?
The Zurich outdoor escape game takes the escape room out of the basement: the puzzles are planted in the city's own buildings, and you solve them on your phone by reading what stands around you. Allow about 2 hours, of which 47 minutes is walking the 3.7 km that join the 10 stops, and begin on the day and at the hour you choose.
Puzzles are set at the Alfred Escher monument on Bahnhofplatz, at the Pestalozzi statue on Bahnhofstrasse, on the Lindenhof terrace above the Limmat, in front of the enormous clock face of St Peter's, at the Town Hall standing in the river, at the Opera House and at the twin towers of the Grossmünster. Each one is independent, so nothing is lost if you tackle them out of sequence, and hints arrive in three levels. Zurich is a good fit: the centre is small, and the river, the lake and the medieval lanes are never more than a few minutes apart.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 47 min · 3.7 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do on the escape game
Solve
One puzzle at every attraction, opened by observation and logic. Nothing has to be known in advance.
Check the details
Clues sit in clock faces, inscriptions, coats of arms and fountains, and in the way a building meets the water.
Follow the Limmat
Google Maps links the stops: 47 minutes on foot over 3.7 km, from the main station to the Old Town.
No countdown
The clock is not your opponent. Use a hint, break for coffee by the lake and continue later or on another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it suits
Friends
At every stop a puzzle gives the group something to work out together, and no local knowledge is needed.
Couples
An afternoon of thinking out loud along the river and the lakefront, at whatever speed the two of you prefer.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, which suits colleagues and company outings in the city centre.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from the Landesmuseum to the Old Town
10 stops · about 47 min walking · start: Swiss National Museum (Landesmuseum) · finish: Old Town (Altstadt)
The first puzzle belongs to the Swiss National Museum beside the main station, and from Bahnhofplatz with its Escher monument the route turns onto Bahnhofstrasse at the Pestalozzianlage. It then climbs the Lindenhof, drops to St Peter's Church, crosses the Limmat to the Town Hall and reaches Lake Zurich, following the shore to the Opera House and on to the Grossmünster, with the last puzzle in the lanes of the Old Town. Daylight suits the game, because the clues are outdoors and rain or a cold wind off the lake shortens patience. Stops can be reordered in the app, and the puzzles need no entry tickets.
Open the route map ↗
1Swiss National Museum (Landesmuseum)Start
The Landesmuseum beside the main station opened in 1898 in a building by Gustav Gull, designed like a French Renaissance château with towers and turrets. Inside, the national museum tells the story of Switzerland from prehistory to the present day.
2Bahnhofplatz
Bahnhofplatz is the square in front of Zurich's main station, whose station building by Jakob Friedrich Wanner opened in 1871. In the centre stands the monument to Alfred Escher, unveiled in 1889, honouring the politician and railway pioneer who pushed for the Gotthard railway and founded the bank that later became Credit Suisse.
3Pestalozzianlage
This small park on Bahnhofstrasse is named after Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827), the Zurich-born educator whose idea of learning with head, heart and hand influenced schools far beyond Switzerland. His bronze statue by Hugo Siegwart, unveiled in 1899, shows him with a child at his side.
4Lindenhof
This hill shaded by linden trees rises above the Limmat where the Romans built a fort in the 4th century, and a Roman tombstone found here in 1747 names Turicum, the Roman name of Zurich. According to legend, the women of Zurich marched up here in armour during a siege in 1292, a story recalled by the Hedwig Fountain of 1688.
Read the full story →
5St Peter's Church
St Peter is thought to be the oldest parish church in Zurich, and its tower carries one of the largest church clock faces in Europe, about 8.7 metres across. The tower belongs to the city and served as a fire lookout until 1911, while the church itself belongs to the parish.
6Town Hall (Rathaus)
Zurich's Town Hall was built between 1694 and 1698 on foundations set in the Limmat, replacing an older council house from 1397. The cantonal parliament and the city parliament both still meet here, and from the bridge next to it you can see how the building stands right in the river.
7Lake Zurich
Lake Zurich stretches about 40 km to the southeast and covers almost 89 square kilometres, shared by the cantons of Zurich, St Gallen and Schwyz. At the city end its water flows out into the Limmat, and on clear days the Alps appear beyond the far shore.
8Zurich Opera House
The Opera House opened in 1891, built by the Viennese architects Fellner & Helmer after the old theatre burned down in 1890. Busts of Weber, Wagner and Mozart and of Schiller, Shakespeare and Goethe decorate the façade above Sechseläutenplatz, where the Böögg snowman is burned at the spring festival.
9Grossmünster
According to legend, Charlemagne founded the Grossmünster where his horse knelt over the graves of Zurich's patron saints Felix and Regula; the present Romanesque church was begun around 1100. Huldrych Zwingli preached here from 1519 and made it the starting point of the Swiss Reformation, and the twin towers got their present tops in 1787.
10Old Town (Altstadt)Finish
Zurich's Old Town spreads along both banks of the Limmat, and its narrow lanes still follow the medieval street plan. On the right bank, the car-free Niederdorf is full of small shops, bars and fountains, and old guild houses line the Limmatquai.
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